Mattel Can Suck It

Well, Mattel keeps extending the sale on their 2012 Toy Subscriptions, because not enough fans have signed up for the DC Universe Classics Club Infinite Earths for them to go forward with it. Originally, I think they were only supposed to be available for two weeks, but they keep extending it. I think we're up to a month now. Not only that, but word has just bubbled up that the subscriptions for their flagship club, Club Eternia, the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe sub is at an all-time low and they are scaling back production on that line as well. I have no idea how their Ghostbusters and Voltron Clubs make the cut. Are you telling me that Ghostbusters, which is entirely based on two movies from 25 years ago, has a stronger fan base than DC Comics, which has consistently produced comics for like 75 years?! Not only that, but they're super heroes! Perfect for a toy line. The Ghostbusters are just regular guys in jump suits! How much fun can that possibly be?! And Voltron is in the same boat. It's a cartoon series from the 80s that, to my knowledge, hasn't been syndicated since. I know there's new Voltron stuff coming, which explains this toy line, but seriously?

One fan pointed out something, though-- why does DC have to have a certain amount of subscribers to even get a toy line, when these other properties don't? That doesn't seem fair, does it? I think it's because, for whatever reason, DC hasn't proven popular on Mattycollector.com. They gave a big roll-out to their Justice League Unlimited four-packs only for sales of those to be sluggish and to be discontinued after the initial offerings. They also offered some exclusive two-packs for DCUC, but they were always of really obscure characters, so once again, they were discontinued. Their 12" movie-based dolls are just freakin' expensive. As nice as their Christopher Reeve Superman and Terrance Stamp General Zod looked, I wasn't buyin' 'em! No way! And their 8" Retro Action line just flopped all around, online and in stores. So, I suppose that's why they are being more cautious with the DC subscription.

Their handling of this was really botched, though. Basically, the news of this subscription was LEAKED, not even officially announced, just DAYS before it went on sale. Then they were very meager with the details of it. Fan speculation ran rampant. Mattel revealed the first three figures, the original Flash, Atrocitus and Starman. The reveal didn't exactly send fans into a tizzy. Most scoffed. Almost every collector only wants one of the three, Atrocitus OR The Flash, but nearly no one wants all three and NO ONE that I've seen online wants Starman at all. Because of this, collectors were saying, "If the sub doesn't happen, they'll just drop these figures into regular retail assortments." Mattel quickly announced that no, in fact, they would not. They would not make these figures at all, if the sub didn't happen.
Then word started spreading that the retail line was switching over strictly to DCnU, based on the upcoming relaunch which everyone is dreading. Fans were stating that the online subscription was going to be the ONLY way to get "classic" characters. Still a large number of collectors scoffed. Many expressed that they were "cherry pickers" and never bought full assortments and only wanted certain figures. "I only buy Batman-related characters." "I only buy the big name characters." I mean, I only buy certain figures, too! I prefer characters from the Silver Age through the 80s, roughly the Crisis on Infinite Earths period. That's not carved in stone or anything and I've certainly bought a number of characters I couldn't care less about because I wanted the Collect & Connect figure whose parts they came with. I don't want Atrocitus and am apathetic about Starman, but dammit, there are still characters I want that aren't part of this line, so I'm buying the sub on the off chance I get Vixen or Dr. Light thrown in the mix.

Still... sales aren't at 100%. Mattel then announced the highly-demanded Poison Ivy was being added as the fourth figure. Still not at 100%.

They've since explained that the retail line isn't switching over to DCnU, BUT that it was being retooled into more of an "all-star" line, meaning that "team builders" (the rest of the Metal Men, Doom Patrol, Legion of Super Heroes, Suicide Squad, etc.), females (read into that what you will) and more obscure choices like Killer Moth, would ONLY be available through the subscription.

Still not at 100%. Many fans are pointing out that Mattel's statement said "If this club doesn't happen, we will not be making this figures... in 2012." And someone from Mattel on Facebook mentioned something about 2015. How's that for not having your shit together? Basically, what a number of collectors have surmised is that if the club doesn't happen, Mattel will still make these figures, just not until after 2012. I personally don't buy that. They've all but flat out said so, yet cherry pickers are still clinging to that hope. I'm frustrated. I want more figures, but since it just doesn't seem like it's happening, I've resigned myself to that fact. Plus, I am happy with the figures I did get. This whole dramz has been going on for over a month now, I think. I'm kinda fed up with it.

Then there's Club Eternia. In a recent statement ToyGuru, Mattel's fan-liaison announced that their sales were at their lowest and as a result, Shadow Weaver, the club exclusive was likely to be the rarest figure ever in that line. Way to be, assholes, make a figure that fans have been clamoring for for 30 years and make her super insanely rare. They are also scaling back production on all of their figures. See what happens is, they release the figures to subscribers and they produce extra (I'm not sure how many, though) so people that don't subscribe can buy figures they want. The extras always sell out. In the beginning, they sold out in MINUTES. Then they upped production, but they still usually sold out the first day. (In relation, the DC product they were issuing online would still be available for weeks.) Sounds mighty damn successful if you ask me. But they're scaling back. Not just that, but for the past couple years, they have been regularly re-issuing earlier figures that some fans might have missed out on, not to mention they've made tweaks to certain aspects that fans complained about in the initial release. (For example, the first He-Man figure had reddish paint on his cheeks, making it look like he was wearing rouge, which is why I disliked that figure and stopped buying them the first time around.) They have officially announced that they would no longer re-issue figures, so if you miss out on them when they first go on sale, you're SOL.
My problem is, I definitely want anything related to She-Ra, Princess of Power. I'm DYING to get the Star Sisters three-pack coming out. As I discussed before, these were supposed to be part of a third (or was it fourth) wave of She-Ra toys in the 80s and the characters even popped up on the cartoon and as a poster in the She-Ra magazine, but retailers didn't order enough, so they were aborted and the entire line ended. I want Shadow Weaver and am really appalled that Mattel chose to make her such an exclusive figure, especially since I do hear that a lot of collectors of this line only want He-Man figures, not She-Ra. (My solution would be to make a She-Ra only subscription, which I would sign up for in a heartbeat! Or to even make She-Ra her own separate line, since some boys even as adults think girls have cooties.)

It isn't that I don't want ANY He-Man figures, it's just that I only wanted a handful and I have most of those, He-Man himself (the reissued one without the rouge on), Prince Adam and Orko, Teela, Evil-Lyn... I just added Skeletor, Battle Cat and Hordak. The only other ones I'll probably get are Man-At-Arms and the upcoming Sorceress. The problem with Club Eternia, then, is that those characters are already over and done with and now we're only like Sy-Klone and Snout Spout and Fisto. Um, pass. I don't even know who this fucking guy is!-->

Not just that, but they're including shit like characters from The New Adventures of He-Man, a late 80s attempt to revive the franchise in a sci fi setting... which FAILED and NO ONE LIKED! I don't want to be forced to spend $25 on some shitty figure from that collection! And they've done figures based on TV show characters I don't remember, unproduced toy concepts, concept art... and I think they've even started throwing in all-new original characters! NO THANKS!

This is the Fearless Photog. I BELIEVE (and correct me if I'm wrong), this character was designed for and won a contest in the 80s, where kids were invited to submit their own Masters characters. Okay, for die-hards, I can see where this is a cool inclusion, but SERIOUSLY?! Not just that, but Mattel is holding a NEW design-your-own-character contest, and that character will also be part of the toy line. So, they want me to spend like $255 roughly to get, like five characters I want.

Fearless Photog isn't part of the subscription. Oh yeah, did I mention that they also issue stuff that isn't included in the sub so even subscribers have to go online the day this stuff is released and try and fight for certain pieces that they want?! Ugh.

Then what do I do with the shit I don't want. No one is going to want that <--Flip-Shot figure (the New Adventures figure). I could see unloading some of the bigger names more easily, but dammit, I hate selling shit on eBay. It's so much more trouble than its worth!

So yeah, Mattel is getting kind of "strong arm" with these subscriptions, basically saying "If you want these lines, you have to subscribe." The problem is we're in like the worst recession in memory. Not everyone has $255 to throw at these collections and even if you did, why would you want to pay $25 for some figure you don't want at all?! Also, a lot of collectors collect multiple of these lines! How bad must that suck?! So, you know what Mattel... I think we should start seeing other people. We can stay friends, because I still want The Sorceress and the random She-Ra figures, but I think it's best if we spent some time apart. It's not me, it's you. XOXO

SDCC Toy News

Mattel had some surprising and not-so-surprising news at ComiCon this past weekend. Both of its major DC Comics lines are ending! With Justice League Unlimited, it's been a forgone conclusion for a while. The cartoon series that inspired it has been off the air for YEARS. The line struggled at retail. The last few announced waves were canceled! Mattel has graced fans with a Final Seven boxed set that will be offered through their website which will provide the final seven characters that were depicted on the cartoon but that had yet to be produced as action figures. And they seem to have done a nice job with them. We get Gypsy the last member of the Detroit League and from the Golden Age, Dr. Mid-Nite, Johnny Thunder and his Thunder Bolt, niftily rendered in clear pink plastic and the Crimson Avenger, plus The Creeper and in a surprising move (somewhat) Teen Titan Speedy who guest starred in the episode paying tribute to the Seven Soldiers of Victory. I don't consider Speedy a Justice Leaguer, but I know a lot of fans wanted him because he did pop up in that one episode, so it's nice that he's there. IF this set sells well, Mattel says they will try to offer the other sets that got pulled from retail release, which helps further fill-out the Legion of Doom.
JLU's demise was already in the cards, but the real shock was Mattel's announcement that DC Universe Classics would be ending with Wave 20, which they revealed at ComiCon. It's a Blackest Night-themed wave with a Nekron C+C, Sinestro, Hawk & Dove, Green Lantern in his Smallville inspired costume, Red Arrow and Reverse Flash. I mainly want Hawk & Dove. They also unveiled a Crime Syndicate of Amerika boxed set, which looks super sweet and is a must-have!
Here's what went down. Earlier in the week, news leaked that Mattel would launch an on-line subscription service and offer 12 exclusive figures that would only be offered online, but ONLY if enough people subscribed. Fans went BATSHIT! First of all, no one had any idea which characters were going to be offered. I CORRECTLY guessed that it would be a way for them to fill out more obscure teams that they'd begun like The Metal Men and Doom Patrol and offer more off-beat characters that would struggle at retail. The Metal Men and Doom Patrol characters that HAVE been released at retail haven't done well.

What no one suspected was that the retail line was being canceled all together and that this would be the ONLY way for DCUC to continue. The only figures they've revealed are Jay Garrick the original Flash, Starman from the Legion of Super Heroes/Justice Society and Atrocitus the leader of the Red Lanterns. They are offering one figure that will only be sold to subscribers and allowing fans to vote for who it is, Shaggy Man, Rocket Red, Black Lantern Swamp Thing or Metron and his giant chair. I can't imagine anyone but Metron winning.

They haven't confirmed it, but what is likely to happen, is that DCUC will be replaced at retail with a line that reflects DC's big upcoming revamp. Booooooooooo! FUCKING BOOOOOOOOOO!
So, I signed up for the subscription. Starman doesn't do much for me and I absolutely don't want Atrocitus, but I want Jay Garrick and a bunch of additional characters so I'm hoping things work out and the line is able to continue in this capacity.

The thing is, though, even though I want additional characters like Vixen, this toy line gave me a pretty much complete classic Justice League PLUS the Wonder Twins, the ethnic Super Friends AND characters plumb made up for the Super Powers toy line, not to mention a bunch of characters that were planned for the SP line but un-produced. I mean, I can't be mad or even sad about it possibly ending, because right there, I pretty much already have the awesomest toy line ever!
Marvel unveiled a slew of new figures, many of which I want, many of which I don't. It's a bit refreshing after all the DC dramz. With Marvel, you can cherry pick and choose who you do and don't want. they don't have C+C pieces so you feel like you have to buy all of an assortment. Just buy what you want. And they showcased a TON that I want, like classic Luke Cage (Power Man) and Iron Fist above, Scarlet Witch, She-Hulk, Dr. Strange, The Falcon, Wonder Man, Quicksilver... just a bunch that I consider essential additions to my collection.
Masters of the Universe Classics now has the rights to produce the Filmation characters/version of characters and the biggest announcement was the much clamored-for Shadow Weaver... but alas, she is the Masters subscription exclusive, meaning you have to sign up to buy EVERY Masters figure this upcoming year to get her. FUCK that! I'll just pay whatever I have to on eBay. I hope it's not more than $100!
Swift Wind, She-Ra's winged unicorn, is rendered in his eye-catching cartoon colors. (The toy version was originally all pink.)
The Sorceress is sporting her falcon-inspired cartoon look.
For me, a bigger shock than Shadow Weaver were the Star Sisters! All three Starla (above)...
Tall Star...and Jewel Star are being released TOGETHER in a boxed set along with their falcon, Glory Bird:
I have always hoped that they would produced these figures that went UN-produced in the original toy line, but I'm stunned they came so soon, before such stalwarts as Glimmer and Angella and Frosta! But the fact that you can get them all at once and not slowly over time just makes me swoon! I'm just THRILLED! I can't wait!

I've also bitten the bullet and bought a few Masters figures I didn't get the first time around. Well, I DID by He-Man, but I just re-bought him. It's the re-issue version that does NOT look like he's wearing rouge. I also got Skeletor, Battle Cat and Hordak. And I just ordered Orko and Prince Adam. I'm a sucka. But that's kinda my cut off with Masters. If they reissue Man-At-Arms, I'll get him too. But that's all. I don't want all the others, which is why the subscription thing doesn't appeal to me. Even bigger name characters like Fisto and Kobra Khan who were announced don't appeal to me. (I will be getting The Sorceress, though and the new Battlefield Evil Lyn, colored in her cartoon color scheme with white skin and a purple, blue and black costume.)

Yep, it's gonna be an interesting year!

Throwback Thursday - She-Ra: Princess of Power

"For the honor of Greyskull!... I am She-Ra!" Yep, I'm finally following up my uber-popular He-Man post with one focusing on his long-lost twin sister, the striking She-Ra! Or as I like to say, "Um, what, Dad? No, these aren't dolls! They're part of the Masters of the Universe collection!"
Mattel had begun advertising its doll TOY line Princess of Power, fronted by She-Ra, on TV and I believe some of the toys had even popped up at retail, but no one knew yet just WHO this She-Ra person was! Everything was revealed with the theatrical animated movie The Secret of the Sword.
She-Ra was secretly Adora, the twin sister of Prince Adam, He-Man's alter-ego and the front man for the phenomenally successful Masters of the Universe toy line. As was revealed in the movie, when the two were just newborns, the villains Hordak and Skeletor sneaked into the Royal Palace of Eternia and attempted to kidnap both of them, but were thwarted by the arrival of Man-At-Arms. Skeletor was captured, but Hordak escaped into another dimension, known as Etheria Despondos with infant Adora. The Sorceress mindwiped everyone except Man-At-Arms, King Randor and Queen Marlena into forgetting about Adora, who was raised by Hordak on Etheria (located IN the dimension Despondos) to become the top agent in his army The Evil Horde. Adora was fooled into believing that The Horde was GOOD and when she became suspicious at times, was placed under a spell by Hordak's right-hand sorceress Shadow Weaver.

In The Secret of the Sword, He-Man's benefactor, The Sorceress, discovers a magical sword, identical to He-Man's (which is the source of his powers), with the exception of having a blue jewel embedded in it. The sword shows The Sorceress the portal to Etheria, where Adora now resides. The Sorceress quickly dispatches Adam to this parallel dimension to locate her, although she doesn't reveal that the person he is seeking is his sister, of whom he has no knowledge.
Upon reaching Etheria, Adam finds himself in a bar brawl with agents of The Evil Horde and allies himself with Bow, a member of The Great Rebellion. After some homoerotic horseback riding, Bow takes Adam to the mystical Whispering Woods to meet Glimmer and the rest of the Rebellion.

The Whispering Woods are enchanted to keep the Rebels concealed. Should Horde troops attempt to find them, the plants and foliage actually moved around to confuse the villains.

Later, He-Man is captured by The Horde and both his Sword of Power and Adora's Sword of Protection are seized. Once in The Fright Zone, Hordak's base of operations, the Sword of Protection seeks Adora out and allows the Sorceress to communicate with her, which she does to enlighten Adora to the true nature of Hordak.

Adora then breaks free of Shadow Weaver's spell and cries out "For the Honor of Grayskull!... I am She-Ra!"


She then rescues He-Man and quickly discovers that she is also able to transform her normal horse, Spirit, into a winged unicorn named Swift Wind. The rest of the movie consists of He-Man and She-Ra rescuing Glimmer's mother Queen Angella from harpies and paying a return visit to her family back on Eternia. However, Adora/She-Ra realizes that her true purpose is to return to Etheria and help The Great Rebellion free the planet from Hordak's rule.
She-Ra had the same super strength as He-Man, but her powers of "Protection" granted her some other, more subtle abilities, like the power to communicate with animals telepathically and healing powers. Also, her sword, unlike He-Man's, could transform into other tools, like a shield, ladder or pretty much anything else she needed.
Whereas Eternia appears much more technologically advanced, with high tech vehicles and ray guns and such, Etheria appears more agricultural and magically-based. The Horde seem to posses the only advanced technology on the planet, but there seem to be a lot more magic users there than on Eternia.
Here's where things get really muddled. I may have mentioned this in my He-Man post, but the earliest books featuring the Masters of the Universe seem to take place in another continuity, where Eternia is more primitive and savage. The high-tech weaponry used appears to actually be left over from a previous civilization that died out. In this timeline, He-Man was a member of a tribe of cave dwellers. Then the idea of him being the prince of the royal family was introduced and the previous timeline was negated. THEN, the Filmation series began and once again slightly modified, making Eternia much more advanced and civilized. The She-Ra TV show followed along with the previously established Masters series. The toys however... didn't.

The entire She-Ra cartoon centered around She-Ra and her allies battling Hordak and The Evil Horde, most notably, Catra, Mantenna, Leech, Grizzlor, Modulok, Shadow Weaver and Scorpia. However, the mini comics that came with the PoP dolls never mentioned the Horde. The only villain in the books was Catra, who bore very little resemblance to the character from the cartoons.

The male Horde members were introduced in the Masters of the Universe toy line. (The other female Horde members were not made as toys in either series.) The mini comics that came with The Horde toys told a different tale, that these conquerors had been traveling the universe and were now returning to take over Eternia, with no mention of Etheria or She-Ra and The Great Rebellion.

What I didn't know at the time, is that the He-Man cartoon series had ceased production and Filmation was ONLY producing She-Ra at this point. (They were still airing new He-Man episodes, that had been completed prior to She-Ra, but saved and not previously aired.) The He-Man toy line was still around, though, so in order to promote the new He-Man toys, a lot of concepts were introduced on She-Ra's show!
Most notably, the Rock People...
And cyborg elephant Snout Spout. Yup. That happened.
In addition to the continuity between the toys and cartoons no longer making any sense, the most annoying thing about the She-Ra toy line is that the dolls themselves never looked anything like the cartoon characters. I've kind of already addressed this, but check it out:
This is how She-Ra herself looked on the show, white minidress with gold "sun burst" on the front with a jewel in the center that matches that on her sword and two gold "wings" on the upper bodice. She wears a gold tiara with wings on the sides.
Here's the doll. I can somewhat accept that they upped the "frilly factor" making her skirt more ruffly and longer. I hated the addition of frills to her cape, though. I think I cut those off mine. The colors on her bodice are now inverted. The "sun burst" pattern is now white on gold and only has the "wing" pattern over one side, rather than two and of course that also is now white instead of gold. The worst is the head dress, though. It's now HUGE with that shiny holographic sticker on it.
On the cartoon, Adora is wearing a completely different outfit, similar to that worn by Prince Adam, when he wasn't in He-Man mode. In the Masters toy line, a separate Prince Adam action figure was produced to reflect this, but in the Princess of Power line, You were just supposed to... and I forget the specifics, but I think you were supposed to remove her cape and have her wear her headdress as it appears above. Then when she was supposed to be She-Ra, you were supposed to put the cape on and flip the headdress upside down so it looked like she was wearing a mask over her eyes. Lame!!!
The whole PoP line was like that. Almost nothing was as it appeared on TV. Above is the Crystal Castle from the show. Below are two pics of the toy version.
ZERO similarity. Not only that, but the toy was supposed to serve as She-Ra's home, which it wasn't on the show. On the cartoon... presumably, she lived in a tent like the rest of the rebels. Crystal Castle was the home of Light Hope that She-Ra would usually visit once an episode, the same way The Sorceress lived in Castle Grayskull, not He-Man.
As for the dolls, recently unearthed photos seem to show that the characters on the show were based on prototypes of the dolls, which were colored as they appear above and then for whatever reason, the colors were switched in production. The most noticeable is Castaspella who went from a blue and yellow color scheme to solid yellow (or yellow/orange depending on your perception). Maybe the idea was to make the toy line more "girlie" and traditional.

Unfortunately, the Power of Grayskull was starting to wain. A poorly-received live action Masters movie in addition to a glut of He-Man toys clogging up store shelves soon led to the end of that mammoth toy line. Most of Masters of the Universe's target audience had moved on to more "sophisticated" properties like GI Joe and Transformers. Princess of Power continued for two more years. The final wave to arrive in stores, in 1987 are all extremely rare these days.

Interestingly, Mattel introduced a new villain doll that year, but rather than produce Shadow Weaver or Scorpia, two regular villains from the show that fans had been clamoring for, they introduced an all-new character, Entrapta with long, prehensile hair.
Also of note that year, was Netossa, the only Princess of Power character of color. (The Masters line had just prior introduced its first black and "Latino" heroes, Clamp Champ and Rio Blast, respectively and an "Asian" villain Ninjor. They had previously featured another "Asian" foe, Jitsu. I used parentheses because... well, it's an alien world. They don't have an Asia or Latin America, so...)A line for 1988 was solicited, but retailer orders were insufficient to warrant production. 1988 would have seen the introduction of The Star Sisters, Starla, Jewelstar and Tallstar and their pet Glory Bird.
The characters did appear in the above She-Ra magazine and on the cartoon, but sadly never made it to plastic form. Starla appears to be a fairly standard doll.
Jewelstar would have been molded out of translucent glittery plastic and appears to have employed a similar "transforming" effect as the Rock People from the Masters line, ie curling herself up into a ball.
And Tallstar would have employed an elongating effect, similar to that used by Master figure Extendar. But these never came to be and with the cancellation of the Princess of Power line, the concept went dormant for two decades.In 2002, Mattel relaunched Masters of the Universe with hyper-detailed, modern sculpted toys and an all-new cartoon series, hoping to gain a new generation of fans. What they gained, however, was a legion of adult fans who'd played with Masters of the Universe as kids. Adora/She-Ra and her friends were not included in this relaunch, but as with the original toy line, The Evil Horde was, once again cast strictly as foes of He-Man's with no mention made of his heroic sister.
The line unfortunately failed as Mattel followed the typical model in producing boys' action figures, crowding each case assortment with multiple variant He-Man and Skeletor figures and short-packing the unique characters. The adult collectors who comprised the line's main audience, did not want these variant He-Man and Skeletor figures and were only interested in the unique figures. Soon stores were overstocked with He-Man and Skeletors that no one wanted and refused to order more toys when they were stuck with so much stagnant product, and soon the line was canceled.
The relaunch had re-invigorated the He-Man adult fan community, however and Mattel began to produce products aimed solely at this audience. A company called NECA produced a line of "stactions" small, inarticulate statues in scale with the 2002 toy line, which included characters that hadn't been produced by Mattel in that line, including the 2002 revamp of The Sorceress. Then, in 2008, Mattel and the 4 Horsemen, the sculptors of the 2002 toy line, launched Masters of the Universe Classics, a new action figure line, based more on the original toys than the 2002 revamp, offered online only, one new figure per month. The series was a SMASH and the toys tended to sell out within minutes of going on sale. Soon, for the first time in 20 years, new Princess of Power figures appeared, with a cartoon-based Adora figure leading the way! Thus far, not counting The Evil Horde members, the only Princess of Power characters to appear are She-Ra herself, Bow and Catra. The line is a subset within the larger Masters of the Universe line, so the releases are limited to maybe four a year. With ComiCon coming up, fans are hoping that at least one or two new Princess of Power characters will be announced as upcoming additions.
The biggest treat for most fans, though, is that these new figures are modeled on the Filmation animated versions, with only some references to the original toy line, so for many fans, like me, we are finally getting "definitive" versions of these characters that we'd wanted all along, but were never able to own!
So while Princess of Power never proved to be the juggernaut that Masters of the Universe had at it's peak, it is one of the only times an action adventure property has ever been marketed toward the female demographic and likewise, is one of the only "girl" properties to attract attention from young boys. And now, after decades, fans are able to enjoy new product featuring these classic characters, rendered in forms that we'd always dreamed of but were never able to own!